Reprieve?
by Whisperwill
Summary: OC, very dark. Sequel to "Manipulations, Machinations, and Mutilations." Soma is given a respite, and is not to be experimented on for many months. What purpose lies behind this interlude? Soma will regret ever finding out.
1. An Uprising

**Disclaimer: I don't own the unparalleled _Naruto_.**

**A/N: Originally completed on 3/2/11. Sequel to "Manipulations, Machinations, and Mutilations." Again, we look at the dark world of the forever prisoners. Did I do good? How does the sequel compare to the first story? Reviews are b-e-g-g-e-d for! ;)**

**Rated T for abuse/cruelty, blood, and mature themes.**

**Reprieve?**

"Next." Kabuto waved his hand to summon forward a new patient. A boy who still had baby fat rimming his figure stepped dutifully up to the medic ninja, and the line of naked prisoners moved forward. One boy leaned towards another next to him and muttered,

"Let's take him." His face was dark with purpose.

"But . . ." His comrade didn't seem so sure.

"We've got nothing to lose."

"Except our next meal," the tentative boy said in a small voice.

"It's worth it," the ringleader declared. He looked his friend in the eye. "Isn't it?" The other boy frowned, pressed his lips together, and nodded.

"Who's with us?" the boy went on. An older man shook his head at the sight of them.

"You should know better than this," he warned them. "Kabuto won't go down that easily."

"But it's worth it," the boy repeated in a low voice. A girl with disheveled hair sidled up to them and nodded once. "You, too, Soma? All right." He slashed at the air toward where Kabuto knelt. "Let's go!"

They ran forward side by side. Behind his glasses, Kabuto's eyes widened. He thrust the chubby boy out of harm's way and leaped back. The fist of the boy who led the charge made contact with the stone floor where Kabuto had been. The prisoner cried out, half in pain, half in frustration. Kabuto held his hands ready to attack, but his movements were wary rather than aggressive. "That's enough," he called firmly. "I told you that anyone who acts up will forfeit his next meal." His eyes were already on the tallest boy's bleeding knuckles, calculating the damage. "I don't want to hurt you."

"Liar!" the boy snarled. He and the other boy came at Kabuto from both sides. Kabuto merely ducked out of their way, and the ringleader's punch mistakenly connected with his friend's forehead. He drew back in dismay as the other boy went down. Using the pause in the fight to his advantage, Kabuto took a moment to press two fingers against the fallen boy's closed eyes. Then he shot back again to avoid a kick from the tall boy.

"Huh—hey!" The younger boy had rolled over and was getting to his knees. His face held a wild, panicked look. "Help! I can't see!" Frantically, he pawed the ground as though he might find his lost vision there.

Soma was able to come within range of the doctor. She swung clumsily, and Kabuto deflected her hand with the iron backing on his glove. But Soma's mediocre attack had an advantage for her fellow prisoners that no one had expected: she drove Kabuto close to the middle-aged man who had advised against their attack in the first place. Now, he contradicted his previous admonishment as he grabbed onto Kabuto and, with a practiced grip, incapacitated the medic ninja.

"Hold him!" urged the leader of the charge. He grinned with anticipation, picked up a rock off the ground, and rushed at his tormentor with a yell. Kabuto, gritting his teeth, attempted to twist free; but the man's grip held. He kept Kabuto's arms pinned behind him—without his hands, a medical shinobi was helpless.

But Kabuto had one of his tricks in store. He kicked out while the boy was still several steps away. His sandal flew off and hit the prisoner in the stomach. While the boy stumbled, winded, Kabuto pressed his now-bare foot against his captor's shinbone. The man let out a bellow of pain and lost his balance. Having provided his needed opening, Kabuto went into action, disabling his attackers one by one. He tripped the man next to him, pressed his head into the ground, and left him unconscious using medical jutsu. Dodging a storm of blows by the boy who'd masterminded the attack, Kabuto managed to poke him in the temple. The boy's eyes went blank; he allowed himself to be propped against a wall by the doctor without complaint.

Lastly Kabuto turned to Soma. She could see from his steely expression that he meant business. "Get back in line," he ordered her. The moans of the blinded boy lying near her bade her to attack. But Kabuto had a stance that she couldn't mimic. Against a ninja, a girl who had never been combatively trained could do nothing. She lowered her eyes and shuffled to the end of the line.

Kabuto completed his analysis of each of the rest of the prisoners before returning to the ones whom he had taken out of commission. The blind boy, who had been lying on the floor whimpering in despair, Kabuto helped to his feet. Again he put his fingers to the boy's eyelids. When he pulled his hand away, the boy's eyes flew open, wide and focused.

"O-oh!" he gasped out. His gaze traveled the length of the underground room as he tested out his restored vision. Kabuto went on examining him as though nothing had happened. When he was finished, he pushed the boy in the direction of the tunnel that led back to the prisoners' cave.

"You will be excluded from the prisoners' next meal," he informed the boy, who nodded as he crept away. Kabuto proceeded to wake up the man slumped on the ground. He pushed glowing fingers against the prisoner's head. The man's eyes opened reluctantly, and he sighed when he saw the doctor's face above him.

"You took me by surprise," he admitted. "I didn't know you could route the chakra scalpel through your feet, too."

"Since when do you join the younger generation in rebellion?" Kabuto wanted to know. He helped the man sit up and began going quickly through his examination. He looked into the prisoner's eyes, ears, and mouth; listened to his heartbeat and breathing rate; and massaged an old bruise with warm chakra. They carried on an odd conversation while Kabuto worked. Although the man was much older, Kabuto was in control of him; and they both knew that well. A comment by the older prisoner about Kabuto's unusually adept chakra control for his young age, was answered by Kabuto with an inquiry about where the man had learned his shinobi skills. They continued talking back and forth, Kabuto continually interrupting to tilt the man's head back, or move his arm through its entire range of motion. When he was finished, he dismissed the man, moved over to the one who'd instigated the attack in the first place, and stroked his head. "Wake up," he murmured. And awaken the boy did. As soon as he regained his senses, he surged forward at the doctor, almost as though no time had passed and he was merely continuing where he had left off. Kabuto hopped out of the way, looking quietly vexed. "We're not going to go through this again, are we?" In reply, the boy stumbled to his feet and shot a series of quick jabs, none of which connected with his enemy. "Calm down," admonished Kabuto. When the young prisoner wouldn't do so, Kabuto caught his fist and poked four fingers against the boy's wrist, elbow, and shoulder in quick succession. The arm fell to the boy's side. Kabuto repeated the attack, leaving the other arm useless. From there, it was an easy matter for him to perform the same movements on the boy's legs—ankle, knee, and hip—and render him helpless. Kabuto ran through the exam procedure, the prisoner unable to put up any resistance. All the boy could do was to snap at Kabuto's hand when the medic pried his mouth open to peer at the teeth within.

Having finished with the boy, Kabuto carried his limp body over to the exit tunnel, laid him down, and pressed his fingers against the arm and leg joints once more. "The numbness will go away after a while," he explained. Then he came back into the room where Soma stood alone. "Your turn now," he said to her. He began checking her over like usual. Soma opened her mouth, breathed rhythmically, and moved various parts of her body whenever Kabuto told her to. They went quickly through the physical examination, but for some reason the doctor slowed way down while he was scanning her chakra network. Frowning in concentration, he ran his fingers over her skin along the major chakra channels. He stopped often to consult his medical information, and continued scanning and re-scanning until Soma was thoroughly tired of it. She grew tense, though, when Kabuto lit his hand with blue chakra. He ran a warm finger down the inside of her forearm with a quick stroke—once, twice, thrice. His eyes widened a little. "Interesting," he said to himself. Soma didn't know what the results of his research meant, but she could tell that Kabuto had discovered something.

And he liked his findings. So much so that he summoned Orochimaru . . .


	2. The Latest Experiment

The sound of his sandals on the stairs petrified Soma. "Aaah . . ." she croaked. She began yanking to get free of Kabuto, who was holding her wrist. "No . . ." As the need to flee spiked her adrenaline, she gave a mighty pull of such sudden power that it took the young medic by surprise. Kabuto encircled her waist with his arm so that she wouldn't dislocate her shoulder.

"Be good," he grunted to her as her efforts to escape grew more frenzied. Orochimaru descended the stairway and came up to them. At once he spat,

"Be _still_, girl!" Soma collapsed against Kabuto. Her epinephrine-fueled strength had disappeared and left her limp. All she could do was shrink back against Kabuto, a pathetic attempt to distance herself from Orochimaru in whatever small way possible. Even with her own eyes shut, she knew his snakelike eyes were on her. "What have you found?" he asked.

"This is Anakame Soma, Subject #2384," Kabuto began. "Thirteen years old, been with us for about three years now. She used to have a brother, now deceased." Ignoring Soma's dry sob, he continued, "Female, 1.05 meters, 35 kilograms. No outstanding allergies or diseases. Minor scarring along the spine." He turned Soma around and bent her over his arm to point this out to his lord, running his finger along the middle of her backbone. Setting her upright again, he said in a more conspiratorial tone, "And, according to various tests I've performed . . . I think she may have a kekkei genkai."

"Indeed?" Orochimaru squatted down, took Soma's chin in his hand, and stared hungrily at her nondescript face. "How certain are you?"

"93 percent," Kabuto replied. Orochimaru started to smile.

"Has she matured yet?" he asked.

"Yes," confirmed Kabuto with a nod. "She just started menstruating a few months ago, actually."

"Excellent. Breed her." Orochimaru stood and moved toward the door. "Use another kekkei genkai—we don't want the blood sullied."

For the first time since beginning his examinations, Kabuto seemed unsure. He cocked an eyebrow and pulled his medical cards from his pocket. As he riffled through them, he shook his head. "But . . . there's only one here with a bloodline trait," he pointed out. "And he's . . ." Orochimaru turned and smiled ferally at the young medic, and Kabuto understood.

"As you wish, Lord Orochimaru."

* * *

Following this conversation, Kabuto became obsessed with urine tests. He was always coming into the prisoners' cave to collect it from Soma. The thought crossed her mind to resist the hated doctor's demands. But resistance was familiar to her—she had done it before, and she knew that Kabuto would just confine her somewhere until he got what he wanted from her. She didn't want to urinate into his cups from within a straitjacket.

One day, after leaving as usual to analyze the liquid, Kabuto came back at once and pulled Soma after him through the tunnel. He brought her into another of his underground rooms and set her down on a table. Her stomach roiled with anxiety as he turned away to fetch a vial and a long, thin tube.

"What are you going to do?" she whispered, despite being afraid of the answer. He pushed her down until she was lying flat on her back and laid his hand on her forehead. His hand heated up with chakra, and she began to get sleepy.

"Don't worry; you won't feel a thing," he allayed her fears as her eyelids unwillingly fell shut. She dreamed that he was inserting strange things into her body, but it might have just been a nightmare.


	3. Successful Results

From the time she woke up on the operating table, her life changed. Kabuto switched from urine tests to blood tests. With growing frequency, he came to milk blood from Soma, making a tiny slit in her fingertip, catching the blood in a dish, and quickly healing the cut. Tests of this sort weren't atypical for Soma, or for any other prisoner, for that matter. What changed so drastically for her was the care she was given. Kabuto started providing her decadent foods—cream, steaks, rich broth. Her nutrition was dramatically heightened with the addition of fruits and vegetables to her diet. There were rich sauces and sweet icing and every amazing new flavor she could imagine to tempt her appetite.

For years, she had been clothed in rags that hung off her thin frame. Now Kabuto dressed her in thick, soft garments that actually kept out the cold. Before, she had lived in grime and filth. Now she was bathed every other day. Using hot chakra, Kabuto combed his fingers through her hair and killed the lice. She began to look like royalty to the rest of the prisoners, well-groomed and well-dressed, no longer bony and ashen.

And, after yet another of his blood tests, Kabuto came back to see her. He had a seldom-seen smile on his face. "It worked," he said to her, as though he were praising her for doing something good.

"Exssselent," came a throaty remark from behind him. Recognizing the voice, Soma scrambled backwards against the far wall. Orochimaru came forth from the shadows and moved closer to her. He reached out to touch her middle as she let out a high whine of terror. But to her surprise and great relief, Kabuto stepped between her and the snake.

"I don't think you should be around the patient, Lord Orochimaru," he cautioned. Sounding almost amused, he noted, "Your presence frightens her. We want the gestation to go smoothly, after all."

"Undeniably," Orochimaru agreed with him. Still, he tarried to bend close to a cowering Soma. Staring at her from unblinking eyes, he murmured, "You'll have a nine-month reprieve, little one. No more."

Once he departed, Soma breathlessly heaved for air, having been holding her breath for the last minute. "'Reprieve'?" she panted to the medic ninja. Kabuto nodded yes.

"It means you'll get to rest," he elaborated for her. "No more experimentation for nine months."

"W-why?" she asked.

"Because," he answered with the same smile she was beginning to dread, "nine months is the gestation period for girls like you."

"'Gestation'?" she repeated. It was the second time she had heard that word. Kabuto bent over and pressed the flat of his hand to her stomach.

"Yes—gestation. It means you're going to have a baby."

She shrank back from his touch and his words. "N-no," she protested. "I can't! I can't have a baby!" For the second time that day, she felt her breath constrict in her throat.

"You're perfectly capable of birthing a baby," Kabuto stated calmly.

"No, I can't! I'm too—I'm not old enough—"

"You _can_ have a baby," Kabuto interrupted her, "and you _will_." He took her hand and led her out of the room. "Don't worry. Girls have babies all the time. It'll be the same with you." He brought her to a different room. This room was smaller than the other, and there was no one else inside but her once Kabuto closed the door. Through the bars he smiled thinly at her, and she closed her eyes to shut it out. "Call for me if you need anything," he told her. She curled herself onto a fluffy blanket in the corner and looked away.


	4. Taking Lessons

Upon coming to fetch her the following day, Kabuto said something that surprised her. "Today you'll learn about chakra. I'm here to take you to your new teacher."

"Teacher?" Soma repeated as he hurried her along. "Chakra? Why?" But Kabuto didn't answer her question. Down several dimly-lit passageways they went, and entered a large room with a huge stone snake's head against one wall. Soma could hear voices coming closer. One of them was Orochimaru's. Soma instantly hid behind the only thing readily available: Kabuto. Full of surprises these days, he didn't try to grab and hold her. Instead, he actually backed up, pressing her against the dirt wall of the room and shielding her more effectively.

"Instead of training me, you want me to be someone else's teacher," a new voice said, sulky. "Why do I have to do it? Give the job to Kabuto."

"You are the one most suited for this job, Sasuke," Orochimaru replied. "You have a kekkei-genkai, the same as your student." Flanked by Orochimaru, the boy who had the kekkei-genkai walked in. Soma feared him as soon as she saw him. He was dressed the same way as Orochimaru—and he had the same cold eyes. When the boy saw Kabuto, with Soma ensconced behind him, he looked disgusted.

"_That_ girl? You want me to teach a _prisoner_?" He turned to Orochimaru with impudence. "What makes you think I'll waste my time with _her_?" With bated breath, Soma watched to see what would happen. She had never before seen anyone defy Orochimaru.

But Orochimaru didn't even raise his voice when he said, "In time, you'll understand, Sasuke. This girl is . . . important to me. I need you to teach her to control her chakra. She's never had shinobi training."

Now the boy—Sasuke—looked incredulous. "You want me to teach chakra control . . . to someone who doesn't know anything about it? That could take years!" He rolled his dark eyes, shook his head, and started to leave. Orochimaru reached out a long arm to stop him, putting it around the boy's shoulders.

"Do this for me, Sasuke," he coaxed. "I'll make it worth your while. I will teach you to wield . . . the Kusanagi Blade." Sasuke shrugged free of Orochimaru, but this time, he didn't leave.

"The Kusanagi?" Sasuke was undecided momentarily. Then he nodded his head, albeit with reluctance. "All right, fine. But you'd better start showing me how to use it _today_." Orochimaru left after that. Although it was much safer to come out once he'd gone, Soma still resisted Kabuto as he shepherded her over to the dark-haired boy.

"You'll be fine," the young medic reassured her. "No one's going to hurt you." He withdrew to the side of the room, leaving Soma to stare at her new sensei. Sasuke made a wry face and plopped down on the ground.

"Okay, do you even know what chakra is?" he asked. Soma shifted from foot to foot as she answered.

"It's warm," she said in a tiny voice. "It's bright. It heals. It—it can cut . . ."

"You've only told me what chakra _does_," said Sasuke impatiently. "Not what it _is_." When Soma could only look at her feet, not knowing what to say, Sasuke went on. "Chakra is the energy within," he told her. "And it can do a lot more than cut and heal." A glow—a purple one—appeared around his hand. With rigidly straight fingers, he thrust his hand at the ground. It cracked the stone, and he ended up burying most of his hand in the rock. "Once you learn to control it, chakra can do almost anything." He stood up. His hands flew through a sequence of signs. After taking a deep breath, he blew outward, and as he did, flames exploded out of his mouth. Soma let out a squeal of fear and scrambled backward. But Sasuke wasn't directing the fire at her. He let it blast out and then shut his mouth to extinguish the flames. He raised an eyebrow at her flinching form. Neither one of them said anything for a few seconds. ". . . But you obviously aren't anywhere near being able to control it," he observed. "So you'll start with the basics." He stood solidly with bent knees. Back and forth, he punched the air, pulling one hand back every time he thrust out with the other. "Do it," he ordered her. "Like me." Soma haltingly imitated his stance and formed her hands into fists. She began striking out at the air as Sasuke was doing. He stopped to eye her movements. "Just keep doing that." Seating himself again, he continued to watch her through those eerie eyes of his.

Sasuke had her go through several sets of punches and karate chops. After about half an hour, once she was thoroughly tired out, he grunted, "That's enough." He left without saying anything else. Soma was glad to see him go. The mix of conflicting feelings she felt by being around him was not pleasant. This boy dressed just like Orochimaru—even acted like him, in many ways. The only emotion his eyes revealed was a cold sense of purpose. Soma was confused by him: a boy not much older than her should be in the prisoners' quarters. Who was he, that he could wear the shinobi garb and carry a sword? What was he worth to Orochimaru and Kabuto, that he could get away with such effrontery? There was something about him that made her want to run from him.

Kabuto said that he didn't want her to overexert herself for some reason. He returned her to a cell, this time putting her back with the other prisoners. It was nice that she didn't have to be alone this time, but the others still gave her strange looks. Soma was becoming very different from the rest of them.


	5. Lesson Two

Kabuto brought her to the same room the next day. He waited with her on the stone bench until her sensei came. Sasuke soon arrived and walked over to them. As he passed Kabuto, the medic shinobi suddenly reached out and grabbed Sasuke's wrist. He pushed the flowing white sleeve upward until it was bunched around Sasuke's shoulder. There were long, thin burns spiraling up his entire arm. "When were you going to tell me about this?" Kabuto demanded to know. "Do you want to be scarred?"

"_I_ don't care," Sasuke shot back.

"But Lord Orochimaru does," Kabuto countered, his voice sharp. Sasuke yanked his wrist free and glared sullenly at the medic. It was implicitly clear that he didn't give a thought to what Orochimaru had to say on the matter. Kabuto's eyes weren't visible behind his glasses, but his expression was angry. His voice remained calm, however. "Take it off," he commanded. Sasuke made no move to do so, and Kabuto's scowl deepened. "_Take it off_," he repeated with more force. With a sigh of disgust, Sasuke slipped his arms out of the sleeves and let the shirt drop so that it hung limply from the rope tied around his waist. Soma stared at the graceful lines of burned flesh on his torso. With hands that buzzed with chakra, Kabuto healed the burns. Every place he ran his palms—abdomen, biceps, neck—Sasuke's injuries vanished as though they had never been. Soma's sensei was suddenly placed into a context that was very familiar to her—Kabuto healed her scars at least once a week—and now she felt a kinship with the boy. She was even brave enough to speak to him without being spoken to, once Kabuto had gone back to the side of the room.

"What did he do to you?" she whispered. Sasuke knew she was talking about Orochimaru without her specifying.

"I did it to myself," he answered, before changing the subject. "Come on. Today you'll kick. Watch me." He taught her high kicks, low kicks, sweeping kicks that tripped an opponent, and even a combination of kicks with one leg while the other never left the ground. Again, Soma practiced for a half hour, and Sasuke left. Today, however, Kabuto didn't lead her back to her room when she was finished.

"You've done well with your training. I have a surprise for you," he said to her in that paternal voice she despised. Up the stairs he took her, to higher levels of the lair where she had never been. And after that, he brought her to a place she never dreamed she'd see again.

Outside. The sky was so blue, and the grass so green, it seemed blinding. The breeze was soft on her cheek. And the sun! It shone down bright and warm, with such tenderness that she was overcome with ecstasy. Not even conscious that she was doing it, she ran through the grass. It pricked the soles of her feet. Through the underbrush she struggled, ignoring—or reveling in—the way it snagged and tore at her hair. A misstep on uneven ground sent her tumbling, and she landed hard on a riverbank.

Cold, bubbling water. Birds warbling above. The sunlight was _so warm_ . . .

Her skin was so pale that Kabuto soon guided her back into the tunnels, not wanting for her to get sunburned. She cried under her breath as he took her away.

**A/N: Sorry about the shortness of the chapters! It's just that, when I'm looking at my printed story, the divisions seem to make sense this way. Plus, I'm selfish and want more reviews, XD and I know if I put up more chapters I'll get more reviews.**


	6. Honing Her Skills

At first, Soma tuckered out quickly during her sessions. But long routines of motion, lashing out with her arms and legs, brought her both strength and endurance. When she could finally copy Sasuke's moves for an entire hour without stopping to rest, he began lecturing her about chakra.

"It's the body's energy," he told her for the second time. "You start out feeling it as heat, but once you're more advanced, you can detect it for what it really is." He lit his hand with glowing lavender chakra. "To channel your chakra, you have to change its form into something you can use. This chakra is raw—" He broke off and slashed his hand along the rock wall. The stone was sheared away. "—but still useable. Chakra is power, energy; and if you can route it outside your body, you can utilize it to attack—like the shinobi do.

"Chakra has five basic natures: fire, water, wind, earth, and lightning. Every person's chakra conforms to one of these natures. That's the way their chakra is. The attacks they can use only reflect the nature of their chakra."

"You're fire?" Soma asked in a murmur.

"I'm fire _and_ lightning," answered Sasuke. "That's what a kekkei genkai is—having more than one chakra nature as a result of a bloodline trait." He wrinkled his nose. "They think you have a kekkei genkai, too. That's why I have to teach you chakra control." He said it as though it were the most odious chore on earth. "Once you can control your chakra and maneuver it outside your body, there are ways to analyze it so that its nature can be discovered."

He held out his hand and surrounded it with a halo of chakra. "Touch it," he commanded her. When she cringed away from the light, he went on, "It won't hurt you unless I want it to." Gingerly, she reached out a finger and ran it through the energy. Sasuke let out an impatient sigh through his nose. "Feel it." So Soma, bit by bit, inched her hand toward the glowing chakra. Tightly shutting her eyes, she inserted her hand into the light.

It was like putting her hand into a fire that didn't burn. The energy was warm, almost comforting. Yet like Kabuto's chakra, which had become familiar to her long ago, Sasuke's chakra also held a veiled menace. It was as though the warm energy secretly yearned to leap up and sear her. As soon as she was sure Sasuke was satisfied, she pulled her hand away. "Remember how it feels," Sasuke advised her. "That's chakra. You can detect it as energy, or heat. An experienced ninja can feel it coursing through his body in the same way. But it's not—" He stopped speaking and blinked at Soma, who had suddenly stooped over. Nausea had come over her, and she couldn't stop herself as she threw up on the floor. Sasuke was uncharacteristically confused. "What—?"

Kabuto was at her side in no time. "Morning sickness, is it?" He didn't sound worried. "You'll be all right." Patting Soma's head and helping her to her feet, he waved a hand at Sasuke. "She's had enough for today. Training is over." Soma had her hand over her mouth to stave off future heaves.

"If she's sick, then just heal her," Sasuke said to him. Kabuto chuckled; the look on his face was as though he might decide to pat Sasuke's head next, but he wasn't that foolish.

"She's not sick. She's pregnant." This divulgement made Sasuke's eyes go wide. Taking Soma by the hand, Kabuto escorted her out into the halls. "You can eat outside today," he said to her in a more familiar tone. "You'll enjoy that. . ." Apparently he was choosing to ignore the fact that Soma still felt sick to her stomach.

* * *

Right, left. Soma's body was tense, ready for reaction. Dodge. Move. Strike—

"You call that fighting?" As usual, her teacher's voice was derisive. He was still blocking all her hits with one hand, but over the course of the last few minutes, he had gone from looking bored to looking exasperated. Sinking down onto a stone bench, he eyed her appraisingly. "Is there anyone you hate?"

Soma gave a start at the unexpected question. "Hate?"

"Do you hate me?" he asked her.

"No. . ." answered Soma with a squirm.

"How about Orochimaru?" Sasuke continued.

She flinched at the name. "No!"

Sasuke looked unconvinced by her vehement reply. He raised his eyebrow. "No one? There's no one that you hate?"

Leaning closer to him, Soma whispered, "Kabuto."

Sasuke actually looked as though he appreciated her for that. "Well, at least we have something in common. Fine, then—when you fight, think of me as Kabuto." As she gazed at him without understanding, he clarified. "Emotion affects chakra, similar to the way it affects the body. Fear and anger cause chakra levels to spike. A ninja never has a higher amount of chakra than when he's scared or angry. There are two other emotions that have a positive effect on chakra—love . . . and hate."

"Love and hate," Soma repeated in a mumble.

"These two emotions crystallize a shinobi's motives into a better weapon than any shuriken: _purpose_." For a moment, his eyes became strangely unfocused. "Someone I knew used to say that when you love a person enough, the need to protect them causes you to be as strong as you need to be." He shook his head. "We both know that's not true, but there _is_ some truth in the fact that love gives a ninja purpose. Hatred does the same thing."

"Purpose?" Soma timidly prodded him for more information.

"When you fight, what do you fight for?" Rolling his eyes, he answered his own question, "You fight because Kabuto told you to. Disobeying Kabuto is tantamount to disobeying Orochimaru—something you would never do." It chilled her to hear him echoing her very thoughts. Sasuke looked at her with nothing but scorn. "You can't fight because someone else told you to. You have to have _purpose_." He bent easily into a fighting stance again. "Let your hate drive you." When she hesitated, he added, "You, of all people, know exactly what hatred is."

His words were like a hot brand. Thorned by a rush of ill feeling, Soma suddenly rushed at her sensei, putting all her helplessness, horror, and _hate_ into her punches.

Sasuke blocked them all without effort. But he seemed satisfied.

* * *

She was sequestered again that night. Apparently Kabuto didn't want her present with the other prisoners during his latest procedure. After being put to bed, Soma experienced strange spasms that enveloped her whole abdomen. She cried out in fear, and Kabuto came running to see what was the matter. There was blood on his hands. He wiped them on a cloth and made them hum with chakra before opening the cage door.

"What's happening?" she whimpered. He clasped his hands over her swollen stomach. Feeling the pulsing of the muscles didn't seem to make him anxious, as it did her.

"This is common," he explained to her. "Minor contractions often happen during gestation. It's nothing to be scared of." He left in a hurry without saying more. She slept fitfully, if at all, haunted by the screams that the thick earthen walls couldn't quite block out.

She had no awareness that, very soon, it would be _her_ Kabuto was monitoring, and _her_ screams would be the ones wavering through the halls.

**A/N: My dear readers, I _did_ do research (both of the medical field and of the _Naruto_ canon) before writing this story. But research doesn't always seem to make my stories come out right in the end. Therefore, I do apologize for any flubs according to timeline, characterization, or physical ailments/procedures. I'm going into nursing, so one day I won't mess up that kind of thing anymore. But that day is not today. ;) And, as usual, horizontal dividers represent "scene change"...yadda yadda, y'know the drill.**


	7. Last Lesson, Final Truth

"We don't need a babysitter," Sasuke flatly pointed out days later.

Kabuto smiled a tight, false smile. "Just pretend I'm not here," he said dryly. Next to her sensei, Soma swayed on her feet. Today, she felt exceptionally unwell and found it hard to stand. With a doubtful sideways glance at her, Sasuke must have concluded that his student wasn't up to doing any strenuous training. "It's pointless to spar anymore, anyway," he grunted. "If you can't control your chakra by now, then taijutsu is all you'll ever know." He sat with her on the bench, wrapped his hand around hers, and released a steady wash of chakra. "Focus," he commanded. "My chakra is different from yours, but they're still similar. This is what it will feel like if you manage to route your chakra to your hand.

"First, feel your energy inside you. You can recognize it as heat—chakra puts forth heat wherever it flows. The stomach is the center for chakra flow; that's the best place to start perceiving your inner chakra."

"Careful," warned Kabuto from the wall. Although he usually didn't speak while Sasuke was teaching, he made occasional exceptions. "Remember that she has _two_ sources of chakra inside her now." His mouth quirked in what wasn't really a smile. "And don't try telling her to draw chakra from both sources. A baby is entirely different from a sealed curse mark."

Sasuke gave him a look that most boys reserved for vermin. He didn't spare words for the medic ninja, but continued talking as though Kabuto hadn't said anything. "The stomach may be the center, but it's not as though you're trying to draw all your chakra from it. Chakra flows everywhere in the body. To get it to your hand, all you have to do is let it follow its natural flow up your arm. Then you change its form to release it." He held out his hand and broke the process down into steps. "Feel the chakra in your arm. Move it out, through your hand. Think of it being released, in its raw state, not inhibited by you any longer. It's as natural for chakra to come from your hand as it is for blood to come from your veins." Soma held out her hand with the palm upward, the same as he was doing. Then she tried to follow his instructions.

If Sasuke's explanation had been long, it was no time at all compared to the time Soma spent seated on the bench, tensing her hand, willing her energy to break free. For a long time, her sensei watched her without expression. Then he leaned over her shoulder and began whispering into her ear. "Remember your hatred. Think of how much he _deserves_ to be hated. Everything he's done to you . . ."

Soma cried out. Finally, after months of training, chakra bloomed around her hand with a visible light. In seconds, Kabuto was in front of her. "You _did_ it, Sasuke!" he congratulated the dark-eyed young shinobi. But with another cry—one of loathing—Soma turned her newfound chakra on the person she hated more than any other. She thrust her hand out in a strike that would have done actual damage if it had hit. Kabuto deflected it, though, along with the eight successive thrusts Soma put out. "You _had_ to rile her up, didn't you?" he complained, back to his characteristic annoyance with Sasuke. As Soma stabbed her hand at him again, he grabbed her wrist and held it still. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a strip of paper and pressed it into her hand. Soma jerked in surprise as the paper split off and fell into two neat piles of paper bits at her feet. "Earth and wind," Kabuto noted. "As expected, you _do_ have a kekkei genkai." His smile had never looked more like Orochimaru's, and it was mirrored by the real thing as the serpentine ninja himself slid into the room. Soma squeaked and huddled against Kabuto.

"You've done a splendid job, my apprentice," Orochimaru purled. With wide eyes, Soma dared to look up and see Sasuke. Was it her imagination that he was avoiding her eyes?

She and Sasuke had never talked to one another about themselves. But while Sasuke seemed to know quite well what Soma was without being told, it seemed that she had been vastly incorrect in her assumptions about Sasuke. He was neither a servant nor a fellow prisoner. He wasn't part of an experiment, and he didn't work for Orochimaru as Kabuto did. No, he was an _apprentice_. That meant he was _learning_ Orochimaru's secrets. The snake was teaching secret arts to his heir.

Orochimaru beheld his prisoner and his apprentice, mouth stretched in a grin of triumph. "Fire and lightning. Earth and wind. Yess . . . this baby comes from fine stock."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed and shot open wide. He stared at Orochimaru, then turned his head slowly toward Kabuto. "You said it was standard procedure . . ." he breathed. "A simple physical examination. . ."

Kabuto nudged his glasses farther up on his nose and let out a single, unpleasant laugh. "Didn't you ever wonder why I chose to put you to sleep for that?" His sentence made no sense to Soma, but Sasuke was starting to breathe fast. His eyes went from black to red. Now he was frighteningly angry. To Soma's untrained vision, he seemed to be a blurred streak, he came at Kabuto so quickly. He lashed out and punched his chakra-bright fist into the medic's neck. Unprepared for this violent assault, Kabuto went flying; Soma threw herself away from the fight.

"You tricked me!" bellowed Sasuke at the top of his voice. He was upon Kabuto like a dog upon downed prey. His fists struck dozens of times into Kabuto's stomach in the span of one second. "You _used_ me! Just like you're using _her_!" Soma flinched at his words. The degradation in his voice made his insinuation plain: he was better than her, and deserved to be treated as such.

Now Orochimaru sprang into action. He wrapped one arm tightly around Sasuke and used the other arm to pull a sword out of his throat, which he held against his apprentice's neck. "Sasuke, behave yourself," he warned the boy in a low voice. Sasuke struggled against Orochimaru's restraint, finally giving a wordless snarl of fury. Orochimaru let him go when it was clear that he wasn't about to attack again, and Sasuke stormed out of the room. Kabuto hacked up quite a lot of blood, but he soon went to work, running his hands along his torso to erase the severe damage inflicted there. He let out a long sigh of gratification as his internal injuries were repaired.

And it was then that Soma, crouched fearfully, tearfully against the wall, was shaken from within by a pain that enveloped her to the core. She screamed. Kabuto got to his feet, came up to her, and lifted her in his arms. "So you've finally gone into labor," he announced.

She screamed again.


	8. The Birthing Process

**A/N: Ahh, finally, the final chapter is up! Please tell me if you liked the story, the ending, the gist of it all. Review?**

There was only pain, lessening and then peaking again. There were only her screams, more often wordless than not. "Make it stop . . ." she begged the doctor after hours of agony. It revealed how desperate she was, that she would stoop to asking Kabuto for assistance. He sat scrutinizing her through his lenses, his chin on his folded hands.

"I can't numb it this time," he told her. "Once the baby comes, then the pain will go away." She rocked forward and backward on the medic's table with her hands clasped around her knees. Rocking didn't really help. But she did it anyway. She slid off the table and walked the length of the room restlessly. Pacing didn't really help. But, helped along by Kabuto, she did it anyway.

When she was in the hallway, leaning against the wall, heaving for breath, Sasuke entered from a side corridor and came face-to-face with her. They stared at each other wordlessly for several moments. There was nothing to be said. But Soma could read the regret behind his eyes. Tears trickled down her face as she said, "Get away from me, snake spawn." Her former teacher's eyes flickered at the use of the words. What was the deepest insult coming from Soma might just have been a high honor when directed at Sasuke. She couldn't tell. "You're _better_ than me. Orochimaru doesn't _use_ you." She turned from him so that she wouldn't see him leaving. His footsteps got more distant, but he stopped to speak before going.

"You're right. I _am_ better than you," he assented coolly. She could feel his eyes on her before he, too, turned away. "But you're wrong when you say that he doesn't use me."

* * *

Because Kabuto kept time all throughout her contractions and talked to himself about procedures and analyses, Soma knew it hadn't only felt like hours. It had _been_ hours—twenty of them—since she had, as Kabuto put it, "broken water." He hovered over her, but couldn't, or wouldn't, help, beyond giving her water to drink.

"It's taking too long," Soma heard him say. As if to prove him right, another spasm coursed through her, and she screeched with pain. But if she had wanted his help before, she regretted ever speaking up when he bound her against the cold table. Kabuto only tied down those who were about to be subjected to great torture.

Spontaneously, she began to cry. "Please don't . . ."

He mopped her face with a rag and used that same rag to gag her. "It'll be over quickly," he promised. Anything more that Soma tried to say was muffled by the cloth and drowned out by the hum of his blue chakra. He placed his hands onto her round stomach, arms straight, in position for a chakra infusion. An enormous amount of chakra poured into her.

Had she thought there had been pain before? It was but a pitiful wavelet compared to the tsunami that crashed over her now.

* * *

Completely spent, Soma lay on the table hearing Kabuto in a daze. He had delivered her baby, and now he was making his report. Orochimaru stood listening; Soma had fruitlessly pulled against the ropes holding her down, but she couldn't get away. His snakelike eyes burned down at her. She wanted to hide. She wanted the contractions to stop. She wanted to hold her baby. But she was forced to lie eagle-spread on display before them. She knew from Kabuto that the minor contractions wouldn't cease until she passed "the placenta." And Orochimaru was the one cradling the infant in his arms. He held the baby high and admired his prize.

"Don't kill him," Sasuke spoke up from within his teacher's shadow.

Orochimaru let out a cackling laugh and cosseted the infant's dark hair. "'Kill him'? Dear boy, surely you don't think I've waited this long just so that I can end the child's life as soon as he's born? Nonsense." He left the room, and Sasuke followed him. "I have much more ambitious plans for this infant."

The baby was crying.

* * *

Orochimaru returned shortly and gave the infant back to Kabuto, who instantly pressed a chakra-bright finger to the baby's chest. The fresh wound there was quickly erased. When the snake left and it was safe, Soma begged Kabuto pitifully, "Give me my baby . . . give him to me . . ." The medic ninja complied with her wish, untying her and handing her the baby to hold. He was writing a new information card.

"Subject #2385," he read aloud as he wrote the numbers in chakra. "Possesses a kekkei genkai. Ten minutes old. Male, 0.3 meters, 1.9 kilograms. No outstanding allergies or diseases." He paused and looked at Soma. "Do you have a name?" he asked.

"Bi," she answered without hesitation.

Kabuto nodded and ran his finger over the card. "Uchiha Bi—"

"_Anakame_ Bi!" snarled Soma, holding her son against her.

Kabuto tilted his head and agreed to humor her. "My mistake. _Anakame_ Bi," he remedied, re-energizing his card to correct the misinformation.

Soma sat with her baby—_her baby_—in her arms. Kabuto looked both of them over, fingering the baby's black-as-night hair and bending to massage Soma's abdominal muscles. "You're familiar with nursing?" he asked her. He nodded at her recently-swollen breasts. "That's how you'll be feeding him." It was such a casual question, but for some reason it sent Soma into a veritable paroxysm of sobbing. Rocking back and forth again, she was too miserable to pay much attention to Kabuto as he attempted to comfort her. He caressed her head in a sickeningly tender gesture and gently picked her up. "Shhh, now, calm down. The procedure went well. You're doing fine. And your son is alive and well."

But he could never comprehend that she was weeping _because_ Bi had been born with no complications.

And _because_ he was alive.

**The End**


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